


The Forbidden Dance/Ivan Meets his Neighbour

by ana



Series: Once upon a time...on Barrayar [1]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Dancing, Friendship, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-31
Updated: 2011-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:16:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ana/pseuds/ana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm going to post some background stories/context stories to my Once upon a time...on Barrayar fic.  This may or many not work. It's in a 'lets see what happens' stage at present...</p><p>thanks again to Avantika for the beta read! Any mistakes still lurking in here are all mine.</p></blockquote>





	The Forbidden Dance/Ivan Meets his Neighbour

  
When Eve first moved into her apartment, next door to Lord Vorpatril, he had ignored her, and day after day he continued to ignore her.  He’d acknowledge her presence, if he had to, with a small nod, a hostile expression and then sit on the balcony so he didn’t directly face her.  If she greeted him, he’d just give her one of his nods, and turn his back.

The problem was that he slept as little as she did - she assumed because of his daughter; so at four in the morning, when she usually had breakfast on her balcony, he would already be sitting on his and he’d give her a look which wasn’t at all welcoming.  

Eve took the unsubtle hint, but she refused to be chased off her own balcony.  She was on the top floor of the tallest apartment building in Vorbarr Sultana with the best and probably most expensive view of the skyline - if she wanted to sit on her balcony, she damn well would!

Things would probably have gone on that way – with them mutually ignoring each other - if not for an incident a couple of weeks after she had moved in.

She had been out most of the weekend with her friends the Vorlessi sisters, who were staying at their grandmother’s, and as her friend Stefan was there too, they all made the most of their time together before they got found out.    
   
When Eve returned home late that day, she walked out onto her balcony intending to sit out and enjoy the last hours of the warm breezy autumnal evening, but what she saw caused her to blood to freeze.  

The light on Lord Vorpatril’s balcony was unusually bright but it meant that she could see him very clearly.   Gone was the immaculately groomed Vor Lord she was used to seeing.  His dark hair was now tufted up in clumps and untidy, his face was fuzzed with the start of a beard and he was sickly pale.  He looked like he was in a trance and he was leaning too far over his balcony wall…

Before she knew what she was doing she was leaning over her own balcony, as close to his as she possibly could and talking like a lunatic, covering subjects from the personal to the ridiculous to draw him back. She tried to talk slowly, soothingly after her initial speed talking blast.   He didn’t look like he knew what he was doing or where he was, but slowly he turned his head and looked in her direction, but as if he couldn’t quite see her, his brown eyes looked black

  _– He’s dosed!_

In the middle of her theory on the connection between ImpSec and cats, he moved back one step away from the wall but he didn’t move any further.  He just stared as she talked and talked, she used all variations of his name but none of them made a difference.  

She’d seen the patrons at The Troll Club like this (her da’s club and her home on Earth), and if you didn’t know what they’d taken, they could be very unpredictable.  She could vault across the gap to his balcony easily, but what would he do if she did?  

  
Eve started to step back but she carried on talking, remembering suddenly how her friend, Elayne Vorlessi, had persuaded a very drunk delegate not to fly off the roof of the new Embassy annex.  

She ran inside, quickly found the music collection she wanted, sent it out on to the balcony and ran back out again.  

“Do you recognise this music?  It’s for a very specific dance.” she said, taking a breath and trying not to talk too fast.  “My trainer made me learn all the Barrayaran dances, he said it would teach me balance, coordination and grace…two out of three isn’t bad, right?” she said with a smile and trying to catch his eyes; there was no reaction.

“At the Embassy on Earth they call this The Last Dance and The Lovers' Dance, but did you know it’s also called The Forbidden Dance?”

 _God, I sound like a rambling idiot! I hope he doesn’t remember any of this. Why won’t he move?_

“- You probably do know it since you go to all the balls, am I right?”

He _had_ to know this dance.  If he’d been to as many balls as she suspected, dancing this dance would be as natural to him as breathing.  But he still wasn’t responding.  She had to get him to move away from the wall.  Eve chewed on her lip. She didn’t have Elayne’s beauty or grace but maybe if she started the dance itself, it would trigger something…

She slid off her jacket and threw it to the side, moving to the far end of her balcony and then she began to dance the steps in her bare feet, trying to tread lightly on her stone balcony.  She braided her hair to stop it from whipping her face but it unravelled as she danced as she had nothing to tie it with.  She was relieved she was wearing her usual leggings as the persistent breeze kept whipping up her dress layers too. (This never happened to Elayne.)  
   
The dance – as it should be - began with two rows of couples equally spaced, on opposite sides of the room. The dance brought the couples closer and apart in a series of steps into the centre and then finished where it started- with the couple dancing back to their original place.  But there were rules.

“I think it’s more a test of stamina than grace, don’t you, _Captain Vorpatril_?” she continued, pulling her hair again from her mouth and wishing she’d had one of her ribbon scarves with her.  “Also it’s quite boring, don’t you think, _Lord Vorpatril_?”  

No answer, no response, nothing!  

She began to feel every turn in the dance where it took her eyes away from him - concerned he might disappear.  

But suddenly in one smooth move, he stepped further away from the wall, into the centre of his balcony and moved in perfect step with her but looking into the distance.  Eve let out a relieved laugh.  She observed that he moved with a lot more grace than she, his movements even in that trance were smooth, liquid….not formal like hers.  

 _Must be another Vor thing…being able to dance that well.  Damn Vors, how did they do that?_

She had to get him to talk, though, she couldn’t do this all night; there was a test she wanted to study for (even if she had studied for it for weeks.)  It suddenly struck her just how odd this would look from the outside and she was relieved there was no one else living on this floor.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter if we break the rules since there are no Armsmen to remove us from the floor…I guess they make bets here too, for the last couple standing?”

Then it hit her – the rules!

 _Oh God, I’ve picked the wrong dance! Eve, you idiot!_

There were strict rules with the dance. The couples were not allowed to touch, or look directly at each other, until a specific moment near the end of the dance.   Anyone making an incorrect move would be tapped on the shoulder and the couple would be removed from the floor.

But it wasn’t those rules that concerned her; it was the one where the couples were also not allowed to speak to each other until the dance ended!

Eve had forgotten this because she’d never danced this dance with anyone - only with children when she had got roped into teaching them. In training she usually danced it on her own and she had only danced the short dances when she worked at the Embassy.

If she stopped dancing now, would Lord Vorpatril automatically stop too?  She was moving closer to him, the music rising to that pitch where the couple - if they had danced correctly - would be in the middle of the dance floor; they would side step, turn to face their partner but bow their heads and pause as the music paused.  Then the music would suddenly explode and the couples would raise their heads rapidly and look directly at each other:  when the music was at its most frenetic the couple had to be at their most still, and they couldn’t touch.

Most couples ended the dance there, usually in fits of laughter, unable to stay silent as they looked at each other – very few people danced it until the end.  Some people considered it bad luck to finish the dance.

She knew from their positions that when she turned facing his balcony and raised her head, he would be directly facing her from his balcony…

The music, all drums and frenetic strings reached its pitch and they both raised their heads and stared at each other across the gap, making full eye contact.

“Hello, Captain Vorpatril, I’m Eve Sorrentti,” she said loudly, it coming out less firm as she was struck by his eyes – now a rich brown more than black, they were hooded and tired but they were very…deep.  
He visibly blinked and she did too, a sudden gust blew across them and Eve caught the sharp tang of stale sweat, cologne and something else; he didn’t smell good at all, but he looked less vague.  The music started to slow but she didn’t dance back to her starting position and neither did he.

“Captain Vorpatril?” she repeated (her da had told her that ranks were better at getting a response than titles.) He nodded and Eve smiled, relieved he was finally responding.  “Feeling better?” she asked.

“…Usually win,” he rasped.

 _Huh_.  Not the response she was expecting.  

“Win?” she asked puzzled.  “Oh the betting pot?  Are you usually one of the last couples?”

“Your hair…strange… s’real?” he slurred.

“Yes it’s real.”

“S’very untidy; should put combs in it.”

Eve smiled.  “My friend’s grandmother says the same thing, but like this it keeps me warm.”   He looked very unsteady, so she added, “Maybe you should sit down?”

“I don’t want to sit down!” He looked at her and recoiled.

“Your eyes – they-“

“They change colour, yes, you’re not imagining it.”

He was gripping the wall with his hands, his breathing ragged,

“I need to…I…”

He turned around suddenly and vomited a few times. Then he staggered, looked across at the far balcony wall, overlooking the skyline and she could see the realisation hitting him.

“Ana…” he whispered suddenly. “Ana…” and he started looking around wildly.

“Ana’s at Madam Meyer’s, remember?” Eve burst out. He turned and stared at her accusingly.  
Eve swallowed. “Madam Meyer didn’t say anything else!” she said defensively, worried she’d get her into trouble.  “She just said she was minding Ana while…” While he spent the weekend with his estranged wife, who must have left a while ago – there was no way she would have left him in this state.  But Ana would return home tomorrow evening; Eve wondered if Madam Meyer would end up babysitting Ana for another night.  

“Yes,” he said.  “Yes,” he repeated and she wasn’t sure what he was saying yes to, but he turned around and moved slowly towards the balcony doors.

“Wait!” Eve said.  “Do you want me to call a medic or a-“

“I’m…fine,” he said slowly.  “Too much wine…Goodnight...Eva Sorrentti.”

“It’s Eve,” she said watching him walk slowly back into his apartment, shutting the balcony doors behind him.

Eve sighed.  _Typical.  Elayne gets poetic declarations of indebtedness and thanks, I get vomit and lies; wine? Hah._

Eve vaulted onto his balcony, washed the vomit into the drain, relieved that there was no blood in it and then vaulted back.  Then she realised… _Blood, that’s what that other smell was…._     

Then she worried about him all night.  

In the morning she was stunned to see him leave for work, looking as immaculately scrubbed as ever, in his undress greens and that nice long coat she wanted to steal (it looked so warm.)  She had kept the audio open on her viewer, so she could hear if he left.  She watched him walk down to the lift tube, and as he passed she also saw him glance at her door with a frown.

Three days later he reappeared back on his balcony with Ana and thanked her for her discretion.  She took the hint; she hadn’t told anyone anyway and never would.  He said what happened that day was a mistake; that it wouldn’t happen again.  He never mentioned the dance or any of her ramblings.  

Then he asked her if she’d like to join him and Ana for the evening, in his apartment, and she knew then she was at a crossroads.  She could hear all the warnings her friends had given her - about the dangers of crossing his threshold:

 _He’s High Vor; his mother is Lady Alys, for God’s sake! That’s spitting distance from the Emperor! He’s estranged from his wife and family and no one knows why and my God, what a family!  After everything you’ve been through, Eve, do you really want to put yourself in that world?_

No she didn’t.  She really didn’t.  

But she said yes.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to post some background stories/context stories to my Once upon a time...on Barrayar fic. This may or many not work. It's in a 'lets see what happens' stage at present...
> 
> thanks again to Avantika for the beta read! Any mistakes still lurking in here are all mine.


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